Is bait for eatery sign of times?

Stockton is one of the lousiest places in the United States to do business.

Eric Grunder

Stockton is one of the lousiest places in the United States to do business.

At least that's what the folks at Forbes magazine say. Forbes recently ranked Stockton 196th out of 200 markets it surveyed. To be fair, only Sacramento, out of all the 14 north state and Central Valley markets studied, ranked higher than the bottom quarter. And Forbes ranked Stockton a respectable 24th in terms of job growth.

But when it comes to the overall best places to do business, Stockton is just four spots above dead-last finisher Gulfport, Miss., a place where it's pretty hard to do anything, especially business, given that it was flattened by Hurricane Katrina in August.

Which brings us to Paragary's, an upscale eatery - local officials like to call it a white-tablecloth restaurant - that will open next spring on the first floor, Center Street side of the Hotel Stockton. If the wait staff dresses the restaurant properly with patrons, the city swells will line the window seats so they can be observed by the great unwashed passing by on the way to the considerably less expensive seats at the adjacent cinema ("We'll have two small popcorns and a small soda to split.")

Sacramento-based Paragary's was supposed to open last spring, several months after the renovated hotel opened. But things got, well, delayed. There was some public yammering about shoring up the hotel's floor to support the kitchen equipment. Behind the scenes, there was a more important debate about a public subsidy for this private business.

That subsidy proves one of two things:

Either Forbes is right and Stockton is such a dicey place to do business, no business owner worth his profit and loss statement would come here. Therefore, businesses must be baited with a subsidy lure.

Or, Forbes is dead wrong and Stockton is a wonderful place to do business because city officials will open the cash drawer to get things started.

Of course, the reality is Stockton is tough unless you're smart enough to plant your business in the middle of the city's redevelopment area, especially on the ground floor of the city's most distinctive building. At Tuesday's City Council meeting, where members voted 5-2 to keep chumming tax dollars in front of Randy Paragary, there was a lot of talk about momentum, keeping things going, and not slowing down.

And to those other downtown restaurateurs at the Waterfront Warehouse just across the pond from the new arena and ballpark who opened in the hopes of attracting some of the new downtown crowds, subsidize this: You're on your own.

By the standards of how the city has splashed money downtown in recent years, $2.5 million - or whatever it ends up costing - is about 10 parking spaces at the new garage attached to the arena. (Oh, and free rent until 2012.)

But what entrepreneur wouldn't like to have that kind of cash to file the edge off the angst that attends a business startup?

And it's not like Paragary's is a startup. Paragary's has been around since 1969. The Paragary's Restaurant Group now operates nine restaurants in the greater Sacramento area, with various cuisines and styles, including one built around a billiards theme, the Blue Cue, which might be just the fit for Stockton. Of course, here we call it pool and you play it while holding your long-neck in the back pocket of your blue jeans.

That wouldn't exactly be the white tablecloth image the council is hoping to attract with their, er, our $2.5 million. On the other hand, something a bit downscale from the Four Seasons might actually make it possible for more Stockton taxpayers, who will help fund the business, to eat there more often than on an anniversary or when the boss pays.